maintain and preserve our present condition in Church and State; that, whilst the storm lasts, though we gain no way, yet we lose no way. It is well for us, if though we be forced to take in our sails, and to cut down our masts, yet we can hull it out; that is, if in storms of contradiction, or persecution, the Church, or State, though it be compelled to accept of worse conditions than before, and to part with some of its outward splendour, be yet able to subsist, and reserve itself for God's farther glory, after the storm is past. SERMON IX. FROM HIERON *. LUKE V. 10. From henceforth thou shalt catch men. THAT the world, with the utmost propriety, may be compared to the sea, is evident from innumerable particulars; of which I shall mention a few. The sea is in continual motion: it cannot rest. Sometimes it swells so high, that the banks cannot contain it sometimes it falls so low, that we must leave them far behind, before we can come near it. It is governed, indeed, chiefly by the moon: than which nothing is more changeable. And thus, also, is the world. Crowns are transferred from head to head: and sceptres pass from one hand to another. Haman, to day, is the second in the kingdom; and on the morrow, is hanged upon the gallows. This year is • Samuel Hieron. Not knowing the date of his birth or death, I give that of the volume containing the original; which is 1635. Jerusalem a princess among the provinces; but, the next year, is become tributary. Nebuchadnezzar walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon, priding himself in his magnificence: Is not this great Babylon that I have built? But, while the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. Yes! most true are the words of the Apostle, The fashion of this world passeth away. Who, again, is ignorant of the storms and tempests of the sea? They that go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters, these more especially behold the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep: for at his word the stormy WIND ariseth, which lifteth up the waves thereof. And the world most strikingly resembles it, in respect of its continual troubles. Nation rises against nation, and man against man. Indeed, of every one who lives in it, are verified the words of Job; Man that is born of a woman ...is full of trouble: He is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upwards. It was the punishment which God laid upon him, that in sorrow should he eat his bread all the days of his life. Where, then, there is so much uncertainty, trouble, and confusion, what is there with which to be delighted 2 A man imagines himself in sure possession of his property: in an instant, comes, as it were, a wave, and washes it away. He promises himself peace and quietness: suddenly there arises a storm, and puts him to difficulties of which he had no conception. The world, indeed, is the very sea of uncertainties; the ocean of confused vexations. The further we wade into it, the further are we from the Lord for the friendship of the world is enmity with God. And happy were it, my brethren, if our meditation on this point of resemblance between the world and the sea were able to untwist our affections which are so closely tied to it, and make us long for that desired haven, where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain. Of those who thus occupy their business in great waters, it is said, they reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. And not unlike to this is the state and condition of God's Church. It fares with them as with the ship in which was Jonas; there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken : or that in which were the Disciples; there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves. David, as one who was well experienced in those storms, exclaims, Save me, O God; for the waters are come in, even unto my soul. And again, Send down thine hand from above: deliver me, and take me out of the great waters. And, as it was with the ship in which St. Paul was sailing towards Rome, when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on them; so is the Church of God occasionally driven to such extremity, that, for a time, it is deprived of all ordinary comfort; and all hope that they shall be saved seems then taken away. Hence are these complaints of the Church-O God, wilt thou be angry with us for ever? And wilt thou prolong thy wrath from one generation to another? It is a law which cannot be broken, that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God: God has so appointed it for his own glory. In the first place, as the skill of a pilot is most to be distinguished in a storm; so God's strength is made perfect in weakness. The Lord permits his servants to come to the very brink of hazard, that his power and goodness in their deliverance, may be the more apparent. And when the Church of Israel was in a great strait, the sea before them, the mountains on both sides, and the enemy pursuing them, Now, says God, I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host: that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. It makes them also look up to Heaven with greater fervency. David says of ordinary passengers by sea, that when they are carried up to the heaven, and down again to the deep, so that their soul melteth away in them, then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble. Of the mariners that were with Jonas, when the storm arose, every man cried |